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You can see work there on the $8-million bridge that will span seven railway tracks and Schneider Creek beside Courtland. The substructure could be complete by February and the hope is to open the bridge late in 2013. Planning goes back to 2001.

This will create “a new continuous east-west corridor that will serve as an alternative to both Ottawa Street and Bleams Road,” according to a City of Kitchener report. (Technically it may be a north-south link by Kitchener’s wonky street directions. But in the real-world drivers will understand it as east-west.)

The latest plan calls for a traffic signal at Block Line and Courtland. Planners had considered a roundabout but it would have been tricky with the rail transit station planned beside the intersection. “It would have been a very complicated roundabout,” said Muhammad Memon, project manager for the Block Line extension. Trains will run beside Courtland in 2017.

The four-lane bridge (about 100 metres long) will include cycling lanes and sidewalks. If you get onto it from Courtland heading west (south if you prefer) it will take you past St. Mary’s High School and into side-by-side roundabouts at Fallowfield Drive and Homer Watson Boulevard. Upgrades are planned where Block Line is in rough shape on the other side of Homer Watson.

Regional government built the Homer Watson roundabout with three lanes, anticipating more traffic on Block Line. The third lane was sidelined this year after the busy circle opened to too many fender-benders. It could be reopened if needed.

The Block Line extension is a practical step to improve a congested area. It’s a traffic mess there now. The expressway is overwhelmed and politicians approved big-box shopping on Ottawa Street South without new lanes to move people through.

Today the expressway is being widened to six lanes. An extended Block Line will offer an alternative to Ottawa Street South. If River Road is extended through Hidden Valley past threatened salamanders, there will be yet another east-west connection. It’s all welcome news for drivers who have struggled to get around.